Books

Books

'Mike Nichols: A Life' Charts A Lonely Outsider's Path To Hollywood's Peak

8:01am February 06, 2021

by Scott Simon

NPR's Scott Simon speaks with author Mark Harris about his new biography of the legendary director, best known for "The Graduate," "Who's Afraid Of Virginia Woolf?" and "Carnal Knowledge."

Books
Arts

A Journalist's Eye Enlivens 'Land Of Big Numbers'

7:00am February 06, 2021

by Kamil Ahsan

Journalist Te-Ping Chen's fiction debut puts her reportorial talents to brilliant use, in a collection of short stories about Chinese life that will make readers reconsider their settled notions.

the she said dialogues: flesh memory, by Akilah Oliver

Books
Arts

While the Possible is Possible: A 2021 Poetry Preview, Part 3

4:13pm February 04, 2021

In the final installment of our 2021 poetry preview, we bring you books that demonstrate the incredible capaciousness of poetry — and that we hope will be sustaining company for the year ahead.

Dr. Eugene Richardson in a helicopter during the Ebola outbreak in Sierra Leone, where he worked as a clinical lead for Partner in Health's response to the outbreak. He is the author of the new book Epidemic Illusions: On the Coloniality of Global Public

A Doc Was Mad That People Die From Preventable Diseases. So He Wrote A Book About It

2:02pm February 04, 2021

by Joanne Lu

Harvard professor Dr. Eugene Richardson explores colonialism's impact on global health in Epidemic Illusions: On the Coloniality of Global Public Health.

Books
Arts

You'll Never Look At Your 'Good Neighbors' The Same Way Again

1:00pm February 04, 2021

by Gabino Iglesias

Sarah Langan's new novel takes the old theme of "something rotten in suburbia" and pushes it into the future, in an intense, uncomfortable story about class resentment and the horrors it can lead to.

Books

'The Ratline' Follows Trail Of A Nazi Murderer Who Was Never Caught

6:05am February 04, 2021

NPR's Noel King speaks with Philippe Sand about his new book: The Ratline. It's about the exalted life and mysterious death of a Nazi fugitive.

Queue Listen Now

Books
Arts

Overflowing 'Year Abroad' Is A Travelogue, A Coming-Of-Age Tale And A Mafia Thriller

4:36pm February 03, 2021

by Ari Shapiro

Chang-Rae Lee's new novel — about a college kid from New Jersey who ends up following a Chinese immigrant entrepreneur on a business trip — is part, travelogue, coming-of-age tale and thriller.

Queue Listen Now

The Copenhagen Trilogy, by Tove Ditlevsen

Books
Arts

New Translation Shares The Voice Of A Poet Who Wrote As Intensely As She Lived

11:31am February 03, 2021

by John Powers

Danish poet Tove Ditlevsen took her own life in 1976. A newly translated version of her three-part memoir traces the sometimes amusing, sometimes painful turns of her unconventional life.

Books
Arts

Legendary Director Mike Nichols Is As Brilliant As He Is Enigmatic In New Biography

6:26am February 03, 2021

by Michael Schaub

In Mike Nichols: A Life, author Mark Harris presents an engrossing tale of the auteur as an outsider from the start who grew to find much success in Hollywood, despite some slumps.

Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke play Tully and Kate, two friends who spend decades supporting each other in Firefly Lane.

Books
Arts

'Firefly Lane' Is A Regrettably Shapeless Friendship Story

5:00am February 03, 2021

by Linda Holmes

The Netflix adaptation of Kristin Hannah's novel, starring Katherine Heigl and Sarah Chalke, doesn't follow the novel's narrative shape, but it has trouble finding one of its own.